Supervision of Police Personnel (6th Edition)

Book Description

This book offers complete coverage for leadership training of supervisors in law enforcement and allied fields. The relationships involved in individual and group management methods and the practical techniques for carrying out the various responsibilities of the supervisor are explored. Everyday problems faced by the police supervisor in interpersonal, operational, and administrative relationships with subordinates are also covered in detail. Chapter topics include the supervisor's role, and function in organization, administration, and management; leadership, supervision, and command presence; interpersonal communications; principles of interviewing; psychological aspects of supervision; employee dissatisfaction, grievances, and complaints; discipline principles, policies, and practices; tactical development of field forces; and conference leading. For the training of managerial and supervisory personnel in police departments and law enforcement agencies.

Customer Reviews:

Drawn out and boring, hard to understand.......2007-05-13

I found Supervision of Police Personnel (6TH) to be pretty much drawn out and boring. It is painfully evident that the same information could have been relayed in a lot less then 400 boring pages. It was difficult to follow and often repetitive. A lot of detail was focused on irrelevant material. This was a difficult book for me to swallow (as a 12 year LEO), but it certainly rated high as a sleep aid for me.

Supervision of Police Personnel.......2007-03-10

It is a very good informational source for anyone that wants to pursue a promotion in police work. The review questions at the end of each chapter are convenient and helpful.

Don't pay for this book..........2006-11-29

Don't spend a dime...borrow it from a fellow Officer. I am a firm believer in capitalism, but these guys are really pushing the envelope. $99.00?! Nathan can keep the book!
Is the content any good? Yes, it is solid, however basic, leadership for Police Officers. But $99.00?! Go read something by Covey...it is a hell of a lot cheaper and far less boring.

Sleeping Material.......2006-11-10

This book is so dry and painful to look at. It's great to look at right before you go to bed to ensure a great nights sleep.

Some good info... but rambling and poorly written.......2006-10-23

This text is required reading for many taking police promotional exams. While there is some good information in it, it is rambling and poorly written. There are some indications that the book is not properly reviewed and edited before each new reprint. I hope the seventh edition is better and ties together the concepts clearly. There are several chapetes that are seperated but could easily dovetail into one. I found a 107 word run-on sentence (p.139), and it was by no means an exhaustive search -- there are many such examples. You can make it enjoyable to a degree by trying to find the number of times "catharsis" and "splendid" appear, but other than that, have your asprin bottle handy. I'd recommend a study guide such as Sgt. Walker recommends, or try to outline the thing yourself. Good luck.

Police Administration: Structures, Processes and Behavior (6th Edition)

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Police Administration: Structures, Processes and Behavior (6th Edition)
Charles R. Swanson , Leonard Territo , and Robert W. Taylor
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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Binding: Hardcover

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Prentice Hall's Test Prep Guide to accompany Police Administration: Structures, Processes, and Behavior (Prentice Hall Test Prep Series)
Criminal Investigation, with Student Simulation CD
Supervision of Police Personnel (6th Edition)
Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective
Police Patrol: Operations and Management, Third Edition

ASIN: 0131123114

Book Description

The best-selling, most comprehensive book available for police administration and management, Police Administration 6/e presents a carefully researched and vivid introduction to police organizations that focuses on the procedures, politics and human relations issues that law enforcement managers and administrators must understand in order to succeed. Representing the collective experience of the authors' decades of experience in law enforcement, training, and teaching, Police Administration 6/e is recognized by both the academic and law enforcement communities as the authoritative treatment of this important topic. Chapter topics include the evolution of American policing, community policing, organizational theory, concepts of police organizational design, leadership, organizational and interpersonal communication, human resource management, stress and police personnel, labor relations, legal aspects of police administration, planning and decision-making, financial management, and organizational change and the future. For law enforcement managers and administrators.

Blowback, Second Edition: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire

Average customer rating:

Blowback? Nah---mainly just Blow.
Enlightening
Very informative, but drawn out and wordy.....
Pull Your Head Out or Die With It In The Sand
Catastrophic consequences for America's "hopeless hypocrisy"

Blowback, Second Edition: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Chalmers Johnson
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project)
Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

ASIN: 0805075593

Amazon.com

If the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century may be a time of reckoning for the United States. Chalmers Johnson, an authority on Japan and its economy, offers a troubling prognosis of what's to come. Blowback--the title refers to a CIA neologism describing the unintended consequences of American activity--is a call for the United States to rethink its position in the world. "The evidence is building up that in the decade following the end of the Cold War, the United States largely abandoned a reliance on diplomacy, economic aid, international law, and multilateral institutions in carrying out its foreign policies and resorted much of the time to bluster, military force, and financial manipulation," writes Johnson. "The world is not a safer place as a result." Individual chapters focus on Okinawa (where American servicemen were accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in "Asia's last colony"), the two Koreas, China, and Japan. The result is a liberal-leaning (and Asia-centric) call for the United States to disengage from many of its global commitments. Critics will call Johnson an isolationist, but friends (perhaps admirers of Patrick Buchanan's A Republic, Not an Empire) will say he simply speaks good sense. All will agree he is an earnest voice: "I believe our very hubris ensures our undoing." --John J. Miller

Book Description

The term 'blowback,' invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia's financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our conduct in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster. In a new edition that addresses recent international events from September 11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.

Customer Reviews:

Blowback? Nah---mainly just Blow........2007-08-23

Chalmers Johnson might very well have entitled this manifestly overrated little jeremiad of gloom, doom, and rice-paddy Manchurian manifest destiny "Everything I know about Geopolitics I learned from the Golden Rule".

That's "Blowback": do unto others, O Mighty Great Satan, as you would have them do unto you. Or as the learned geo-strategist and member of the Council on Foreign Relations grandmaster funk-flash rapper extra-ordinaire Jay-Z once put it (in verse, and to a funky hip-hop beat, which is *way* more than Johnson accomplishes in this nearly cranium-anesthetizing snoozer):

"now you shoot my my dog/
I'ma gonna kill yo' cat/
just the unwritten Laws/
in Rap."

Word. Basically, Johnson is saying that all those nasty, naughty, uber-meanie things the U.S. did (or might have done, deniability, baby, deniability) in the last century (and now, yes, tiresomely the first part of the 21st century) are gonna come back to haunt us. Payback's a bizzle, fo shizzle.

Or, to dip deeply into the cliche snuffbox, what goes around, comes around. Or better still, if you're up for Chinese---4th BC Chinese---: "if you sit by the River long enough, you will see the bodies of all your enemies float by."

There: in this review, you've gotten the gist of Johnson's 'argument', and you've saved yourself the misery of having "Blowback" inflicted on you. You should be grateful.

OK: so example---we helped supply, feed, & train the Mujahadeen to fight a nasty and ultimately successful insurgency against the Soviets. The Jihadis won, kicked the Soviets out, and replaced a doddering, backward, socially repressive & economically retarded 19th century system with a---get this---doddering, backward, socially repressive & economically retarded 7th century system.

Progress? Yes. Blowback? NO! Not Blowback, not that bit anyway. Blowback was what happened when the Taliban and their buddies (including our Bon Ami et Frere Amicable Osama bin "Gin & Juice" Laden) got tired of crushing homosexuals beneath stone walls, blowing up ancient Buddha statues, and strangling dogs. Those crazy Talibs! We got 9/11, the ultimate "blowback.". Or blowup. Or something like that.

Now, it's true that Chalmers Johnson's 'idea' has a nice, simple symmetry to it, in the same way the delightful childrens' potty book "Everything Poops" does: it's, well, true. And obvious.

But seen from a different angle (say, that of adulthood), it's a bit retarded. Or, let's be kind, simplistic. It says, if you, as an Empire, or Republic, or whatever you are---if you do something, something's going to happen. Man, go tell it to the Spartans! (or Newton). Actions have consequences. If you read "Blowback", for instance, the blowback might be that you hear your brain cells scream as they die.

Take the British, who for years now have done everything they can to pretend to be a stodgier, duller, more moldy version of Canada, & what has that gotten them? Flaming gate crashers at Glasgow airport and having their Royal Marines publicly humilated and dressed by Tehran's answer to Today's Man.

But like Paul Kennedy yammering, with yen besotted yuppies back in the early eighties, that the Land of the Rising Sun was about to make us all eat sushi and do Shinto devotionals before our morning calisthenics prior to ruling the World---well, Blowback is just not all that. It's too elementary, man: it's thermodynamical.

And in politics, in affairs of state, in war and manipulation & sabotage, in all of that, it's not even necessarily true. The point being: if you're brutal enough, there will be no blowback.

Think about that for a moment: you don't even have to consult antiquity for examples where if you're willing to play around in a little bit of blood and crack some skulls, there will be no real `blowback'. Russia has ruthlessly crushed & decimated Muslim movements in its former Asian provinces and puppet states, the latest being the pathetic instance of Chechnya. And for all that, I have yet to hear Russia denounced by any imams as even a moderate-sized Satan. Hell, Russia & Iran are great buddies, so long as the latter keeps those rent checks coming on the old Bushehr reactor.

China is another great example: for more than five decades, China has occupied Tibet and taken every step possible to destroy its society and culture. For all of that, wanna know China's "blowback" from this merciless, honestly fascist occupation? The 2008 Olympic Games, a few thousand pathetic "Free Tibet" bumper sticker affixed to the bumpers of liberals' Priuses, & Richard Gere.

To dragoon Orwell's delicious little phrase, if you stomp on a man's face long and hard enough---you know, until you hear bone snap & soft tissue turns to jelly and the eyeballs pop out---there ain't gona be enough to---well, blow back.

In summary: Chalmers gets a big fat F for his stupid "Blowback" and should wear a duncecap in public.

That said, I can find one example---right here, right now!---that supports Johnson's thesis. Are you ready?

Johnson writes his tired, pathetic, dull little ratturd of a book.

In return, I gut his book like a sick fish in a quick and deadly online review.

Now that's what I call blowback.

JSG

Enlightening.......2007-08-17

The book's idea is that US foreign policy, made to win the cold war, has consequences. For instance, in '53 when we installed the Shah of Iran to act as a puppet for the West (overthrowing the democratically elected Mosaddeq because of oil) he repressed the people until he was overthrown in Jan. 1979. We'd be crazy to believe that the people who overthrew Persia's most ruthless dictator not be anti-American (since we installed that dictator). To this day I see people asking why Iran's government dislikes the US - "Do they hate us for our freedoms?" Taking this idea of "unintended consequences," Johnson talks specifically about East Asia and its history during the Cold War and after. In particular, he mentions Indonesia, Korea, China, and Japan.

I found the book very enlightening. Since 9/11 the US news and media's idea of international news coverage has been Middle-Eastern news coverage (except for natural disasters around the world and other frivolous events). Also, I went to public-school - I didn't know anything about Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries (and I took all AP history classes). So, there was this vacuum of knowledge about East Asia I had, which this book filled quite nicely.

Also mentioned in the book, briefly, are neoclassical economics, WTO, IMF, World Bank, 1997 economic crisis, Hungarian revolution, and the '73 Chilean coup as well as some other US interventions in the Middle-East.

Very informative, but drawn out and wordy............2007-08-04

This book is very informative and the first and last chapters are worth paying for the entire thing just to read them. Not the most Pro-American book I've ever read, but will give you an interesting take on things. Very in depth and revealing. Certainly shows how our American Empire can throw our weight around when necessary - and when not. Not bad, but a bit too wordy for me. Still good though.

Pull Your Head Out or Die With It In The Sand.......2007-07-17

This book deserves five stars, but I can tell you it's nothing like listening to this man speak in person. As in "Blowback" he lays it all out on the table. Sadly he says, "We just may have gone pass the point of no return." Americans now know that authors like Chalmers Johnson, Norm Chomsky, Webster Griffin Tarpley and Paul Waldman are not just over-educated nay sayers. We know that we're in real trouble, we just don't know what to do about it. If 9/11 proved nothing else, it proved that aircraft carriers, F16's, and smart bombs are useless against terrorists and apathy.

Dr. Johnson summarizes the status quo: "We have a strong civil society that could, in theory, overcome the entrenched interests of the armed forces and the military-industrial complex. At this late date, however, it is difficult to imagine how Congress, much like the Roman senate in the last days of the republic, could be brought back to life and cleansed of its endemic corruption. Failing such a reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits patiently for her meeting with us."

I am without the education to travel in the circles of the aforementioned authors, but I can in my own way address my fellow blue collar workers... The media has dubbed me one of America's most controversial writers. I think it's because I criticize my own party, the Republican Party, instead of the Democrats. This unorthodox approach of mine gives people the wrong idea about me. I don't hate predators. If there weren't hawks in this country, those in other countries would show up here. Do not misinterpret "Hawk" to mean I approve of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney and their Hermann Goering protégés in the Pentagon. Bush is a mouth and a pen; he's in a different league altogether than his vice president. Cheney is a vulgar, immoral, sadistic subhuman. Does that make me a Libertarian?

Catastrophic consequences for America's "hopeless hypocrisy".......2007-06-29

When Blowback was first published in the spring of 2000, about eighteen months before the 9/11 attacks, many foreign policy journals ignored it; a review in Foreign Affairs even said that it "read like a comic book." After all, Johnson's book was filled with gloomy warnings, including this one in his last few pages: "the United States will be a prime recipient in the foreseeable future of all of the more expectable forms of blowback, particularly terrorist attacks against Americans in and out of the armed forces anywhere on earth, including the United States (p. 223, my emphasis). While American critics ignored him, the international community resonated with Johnson, and the book was immediately translated into German, Italian, and Japanese. That his early critics could have been so badly wrong, and Johnson so presciently right, is symptomatic of the problems he describes, and only one indicator of the importance of this book and its two sequels, The Sorrows of Empire (2004) and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2007).

Blowback is "another way of saying that a nation reaps what it sows." The term first appeared in a 1953 CIA document about its overthrow of the Iranian government, and described the predictable but unintended consequences of America's covert operations and foreign policies. What many people around the world "hate" about America, Johnson argues, is not our freedom and way of life, as Bush likes to say, but our global militarism and predatory economic policies which virtually assure future retaliations for decades to come. Even if most Americans are ignorant about our government's secret activities, and believe that our country's motivations are virtuous, most peoples and nations think differently and have long memories; cf., for example, Steven Kinzer's book Overthrow that documents the fourteen nations where America has toppled governments in just the last hundred years.

Johnson examines American foreign policy over the last fifty years, and the parallels between America and the demise of the Soviet Union. His special focus is Asia and the last ten years. The "peace dividend" at the end of the Cold War did not bring a period of American demilitarization, but the exact opposite. Instead of prudence, we have acted with what is now predictable condescension towards other nations and myopia about the certain consequences. Our deliberate "global military-economic dominion," and careless disregard for how the rest of the world understands our predations, are "seeding resentments that are bound to breed attempts at retaliation." Separate chapters look at Okinawa, South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan, and the 1997 economic meltdown in East Asia.

In characterizing America as a "rogue super power" Johnson is polemical but not partisan. The problems that he describes are far broader and deeper than any single administration. Given that many people around the world resent our "exploitative hegemony" as a "hopeless hypocrisy," "one must ask when, not whether, our accidental empire will start to unravel." Johnson asked that question over eight years ago. The subtitle of Nemesis (2007) gives his answer; we are already in "the last days of the American republic."

Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction

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Good Book
Great reading
A great read
Terrorism
What a dilemma......!

Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction
Jonathan R. White
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues
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Inside Terrorism

ASIN: 0534643817

Book Description

White's TERRORISM: AN INTRODUCTION, a perennial best-seller, is recognized as the most objective terrorism book in the market. In the latest edition, White has rewritten and incorporated parts of his two books DEFENDING THE HOMELAND and TERRORISM to create one new comprehensive text. To reflect this change, the title has been updated to TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY: AN INTRODUCTION, Fifth Edition. TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY: AN INTRODUCTION, Fifth Edition strives to discuss the most sophisticated theories by the best terrorist analysts in the world, while still focusing on the domestic and international threats of terrorism and the basic security issues that surround terrorism today. The student-oriented writing style is complemented by rich pedagogy, and there is an adequate amount of research and theoretical discussion to make this the ideal text for both the undergraduate- and graduate-level courses.

Customer Reviews:

Good Book.......2007-09-13

Excellent book to use as a resource. Good quality and very fast to ship.

Great reading.......2007-09-03

To understand what terrorism is, you have to know how it has evolved. This book shows you! Interesting reading!

A great read.......2007-08-13

Dr. White, an international expert in the field of international terrorism has put together a great book to help the average reader who may be inundated with the "war on terrorism" put the problem in perspective. The book is presented in terms comprehensible to the average reader and is not a doomsday approach that many terrorism authors have today. This is a great read and allows a reader to fully comprehend the global problem we face without the rhetoric. Thanks Dr. White.

Terrorism.......2007-01-22

This book is presently being used in my college course on Terrorism. The author presents the information in a precise and readable way. The book was nothing of what I thought it would be. It presents a unbiased history of terrorism . . .from beginning to the present...with explanations about how terrorism works.

Only problem I have with the book, is the author keeps referring to other Chapters when explaining some of the points. I would have preferred to have everything together.

Definitely a book that will help you understand what is going on in the world today.

What a dilemma......!.......2006-10-18

When local governments prove lack of temerity and live in chattering fear from terrorists in their midst, there will be no measure for panic, and experience indicate that fear breeds atrocities.
Experience also indicate that terrorists atrocities do not remain localized, they tend to spread outside the borders.

The UN should leave no stone unturned until terrorism is defined.
If the UN took, in unison, immediate actions in the past century to quash the plots for terrorist's acts, many sad events on the turn of this century would have not been speeded up so sudden and hysterical.
But the UN remained weak by the `Veto' power.
It is amazing how the `super powers' sat on heaps of weapons delicately stored in their arsenals to be on the look out against each others, tiger vis-à-vis tiger, while the bugs were brewing to bug.

Certainly the chain of events leading to 9/11 was so odd they would have been more fitting the famous James Bond - Agent 007 movies.
But the unfortunate fact is that what happened was gravely true.

The USA is to blame because by remaining so passive in the past and by sitting put and lethargic when bloody acts looked them in the eye, America delivered the `wrong' message.
It is incredible how the American public was left aloof to know if the successive Administrations had been seriously handling, or gathering intelligence, about bloody acts around the world.
It is also incredible how the USA abdicated its responsibilities to the UN waiting in profound ignorance to see how the disasters from `petty' and `localized' wars in small countries will unfold.

We can all recall Jimmy Carter's famous smile (a precursor of inaction) and his inclination towards pacifism. (Rescue attempt of American Hostages in Iran that failed).

Despite Ronald Reagan's gifted articulation, his soft actions were no match to his hard words and the same pacifist messages were again delivered.
The USA must have taken better heed of what went `wrong' in small countries on this planet (Lebanon for example), not to stoop from the slightest incident (the attack, that killed 241 marines, on their compound located at Beirut Airport on October 23, 1983, for example). Immediately after this sad event, the USA pulled their forces out of Lebanon - scuttling away from important pressing responsibilities.
As World Power, the USA should not have been deceived!!!

Georges Bush senior daring reprisals looked pale, later on, when Bill Clinton weakened them by his impulse to deal with internal matters at home mixed what they feared to believe with what they dared not to believe. Despite short periods of `hopes' during his first term, Bill Clinton occupied the media for quite sometime bringing up the image that USA house is crumbling, at its weakest point, leaving a lot to be desired.

Mr White sees the definition of terrorism very difficult to formulate, and it gets more confusing within 'Homeland Security.'
Who should decide what is a terrorist act or otherwise a resistance struggle?
Are the Palestinians terrorists? Were Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin terrorists or resistance?
Are Hizbullah terrorists and who should decide so? Were members of the French resistance terrorists?
Which signposts should support `a definition' to be recognized by all nations? Should references to certain groups in history be taken as signposts, and equated with current ones? And how soon will it be settled?
As long as there are inequities in the pending issues facing the UN there shall never be a universal definition.

Who should take the lead to define the legend `Terrorism' , the UN or the USA. This time, the UN seems to abdicate this responsibility to the USA. Our impression is one that the UN is playing the role of the Carrot and the Stick is relegated to the USA.

Perhaps this very dilemma that has been challenging the USA presidents in the last twenty years of the twentieth century until the beginning of this one, will also determine the shape of nations in our times.

Customary International Humanitarian Law Boxed Set of 3 Hardback Books

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Customary International Humanitarian Law Boxed Set of 3 Hardback Books

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors (Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law)
Customary International Humanitarian Law
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ASIN: 0521539250

Book Description

In 1995, the International Committee of the Red Cross, along with a range of renowned experts, embarked upon a major international study into current state practice in humanitarian law in order to identify customary law in this area. This book (and its companion, Volume 2: Practice) is the result of that study. Volume 1 is a comprehensive analysis of the customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts.

Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror

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Love the PW review- as always
"A Republic, If You Can Keep It"
Very dangerous premise
Responsibly Written - Well Researched
The right people to ring the alarm bells

Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror
Frederick A. O. Schwarz , and Aziz Z. Huq
Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Matador's Cape: America's Reckless Response to Terror
Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy
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Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower

ASIN: 1595581170

Book Description

A scathing portrait of contemporary executive power run amok, by the author of the original 1976 Church Committee report on executive abuse.

"In thirty-four years, I have repeatedly seen an erosion of the powers and the ability of the president of the United States to do his job."—Vice President Dick Cheney

Thirty years after the Church Committee unearthed COINTELPRO and other instances of illicit executive behavior on the domestic and international fronts, the Bush administration has elevated the flaws identified by the committee into first principles of government.

Through a constellation of non-public laws and opaque, unaccountable institutions, the current administration has created a "secret presidency" run by classified presidential decisions and orders about national security. A hyperactive Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice is intent on eliminating checks on presidential power and testing that power's limits. Decisions are routinely executed at senior levels within the civilian administration without input from Congress or the federal courts, let alone our international allies. Secret NSA spying at home is the most recent of these. Harsh treatment of detainees, "extraordinary renditions," secret foreign prisons, and the newly minted enemy combatant designation have also undermined our values. The resulting policies have harmed counterterrorism efforts and produced few tangible results.

With a partisan Congress predictably reluctant to censure a politically aligned president, it is all the more important for citizens themselves to demand disclosure, oversight, and restraint of sweeping claims of executive power. This book is the first step.

Customer Reviews:

Love the PW review- as always.......2007-07-10

I'm so glad we have the reader reviews on Amazon. The Publishers Weekly evaluations are often very biased and dismissive. "Though another book criticizing the Bush presidency is of questionable necessity" - really? We've reached the limit on books examining and critiquing the performance of the President of the United States? Thanks, PW! I'll stop worrying about the health of our democracy and go straight to bed.

"A Republic, If You Can Keep It".......2007-07-09

Benjamin Franklin, when asked what type of government we had created, is said to have replied, "A republic, if you can keep it." "Unchecked and Unbalanced" shows why America is in danger of being transformed into a monarchy by the Bush Administration, reporting how this new theory of unchecked presidential power developed and why it is wrong. The authors also contend that the theory is not a response to 9/11, but long nurtured by Cheney and his assistant David Addington from at least the days of the Iran-Contra investigation, and even followed (to a much lesser extent) by Bill Clinton.

Executive branch lawyers now describe an ongoing (not just emergency) power to set aside legal checks imposed by Congress and to even act when Congress is silent. This authority extends to treaties as well, and at least one Office of Legal Council (OLC) leader claims coverage of judicial decisions as well.

Lincoln acted early on at the start of the Civil war without Congressional authorization, and even ignored an order by the Chief Justice. The difference between Lincoln and Bush is that Lincoln did not do so on an on-going basis, sought subsequent approval, and did not act in secret.

"Unchecked and Unbalanced" provides rationale for concluding that OLC's conclusions are wrong; it also asserts that the OLC claims were developed without adherence to professional obligations - eg. they failed to identify, let alone respond to, weaknesses in their legal arguments, and failed to mention key Supreme Court cases.

Finally, to protect our republic, the authors recommend Congress hold hearings and act, and that the Supreme Court follow suit. Unfortunately this is made difficult by executive branch supervision of intelligence gathering and distribution.

Very dangerous premise.......2007-07-06

propounded here. For background, Schwarz was counsel for the Church Committee. It was that committee that emasculated the CIA, not allowing it to deal with foreign agents with any sort of criminal record (who does the spying; not the Boy Scouts) and putting up barriers for communications between U.S. intelligence agencies. All this lead directly to many of the problems of 9/11. Now, because of their hatred for Bush, these authors want to return to that Alice in Wonderland approach to national security. That's why this premise is so dangerous; our lives depend on it.

Responsibly Written - Well Researched.......2007-05-24

The authors documents how the Bush Administration, in an effort to fight terrorism, has side-stepped the constitution, circumvented the Geneva Convention, and broken countless other laws. The authors describe how the net result is an erosion of the moral character of America, which, in the long run, is counterproductive in the war on terror.

The right people to ring the alarm bells.......2007-05-07

Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. is senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He was chief counsel to the Church Committee. Aziz Z. Huq is associate counsel at the Brennan Center and previously clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a book you will not be able to put down, in which they demonstrate and document how the Bush administration has gone further than Nixon or Reagan ever dreamed to create a monarchical presidency with the acquiescence of a complicit Congress and a cowed judiciary.

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

Average customer rating:

Very good analysis of the catastrophic U.S. foreign policy
The bias of a Chompsky
FAILED STATES: THE ABUSE OF POWER AND THE ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY
Great
an uneasy reality

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Noam Chomsky
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Iraq | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0805082840
Release Date: 2007-04-03

Book Description

“It’s hard to imagine any American reading this book and not seeing his country in a new, and deeply troubling, light.”—The New York Times Book Review

The United States has repeatedly asserted its right to intervene militarily against “failed states” around the globe. In this much-anticipated follow-up to his international bestseller Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky turns the tables, showing how the United States itself shares features with other failed states—suffering from a severe “democratic deficit,” eschewing domestic and international law, and adopting policies that increasingly endanger its own citizens and the world. Exploring the latest developments in U.S. foreign and domestic policy, Chomsky reveals Washington’s plans to further militarize the planet, greatly increasing the risks of nuclear war. He also assesses the dangerous consequences of the occupation of Iraq; documents Washington’s self-exemption from international norms, including the Geneva conventions and the Kyoto Protocol; and examines how the U.S. electoral system is designed to eliminate genuine political alternatives, impeding any meaningful democracy.

Forceful, lucid, and meticulously documented, Failed States offers a comprehensive analysis of a global superpower that has long claimed the right to reshape other nations while its own democratic institutions are in severe crisis. Systematically dismantling the United States’ pretense of being the world’s arbiter of democracy, Failed States is Chomsky’s most focused—and urgent—critique to date.

Customer Reviews:

Very good analysis of the catastrophic U.S. foreign policy.......2007-09-19

This is my first Chomsky book. It is quite clear he is an academic and able to say the same thing in different ways (at least through out the first half of the book) but the context is nevertheless good and important- as a nation, we are "bullies" and it is ok for us to break laws but not for everyone else. He gives specific examples like treaties that have been violated and UN resolutions that we vetoed and violated too in order to protect and pursue our national security interests. And given the new generation of politicians- neoliberals and neoconservatives- it is nothing new when it comes to the Iraq War- It's all in the name of national security. We really don't care about democracy in the Middle East only that our thirst for oil is met.

The second part of the the book he clarifies the context and the meaning of the failed states. He delineates several examples after World War II in which we meddled into foreign country affairs and created "failed states"- from countries in Central America, South America, and the Middle East. Now because of our corrupt, immoral, and greedy influence, we are now more than ever looking like a failed state.

I thought he made several very good points but it was nothing new to me given that I have already read various books relating to U.S. foreign policy already. The only criticism I had was that it seemed redundant at times. Overall though, very good and recommended.

The bias of a Chompsky.......2007-09-10

Mr. Chompsky never fails me. Whenever I want to read something that makes me dislike America, I can count on Noam. His failure to be honest in this book is apparent from about page 5 onward. His positive reviews are pretty much canned and produced by the Jim Jomes style followers he courts on college campuses. I give this book only 2 stars. One star because he uses a few big words and another star because in actually writing a book and marketing it, he is contributing to capitalism. Other than that, his rhetoric is tedous.

FAILED STATES: THE ABUSE OF POWER AND THE ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY.......2007-08-31

THIS WELL-RESPECTED AUTHOR HAS DONE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A GREAT FAVOR WITH THIS EASILY READ, WELL DOCUMENTED BOOK. TO ADMIT THAT WE, AS AMERICANS, HAVE INDULGED IN AND ALLOWED SUCH ABUSES OF POWER IS HUMILIATING. BUT WITH THIS AWARENESS, THERE IS HOPE WE CAN CHANGE COURSE AND MOVE AWAY FROM BEING A "FAILED STATE."

Great.......2007-08-06

Well researched, well thought out. Another fine book. I will use it with my history students.

an uneasy reality.......2007-07-21

Reading Chomsky is like being sprayed in the face with a garden hose. Just as there is no question that you are now soaking wet, there is no question about what our country has become. Noam Chomsky is an excellent author who manages to get his point across with a good dose of truth and factual evidence. There is no denying what he says and it makes you fear the path our nation's leaders have chosen despite the wishes of the citizens. The author demonstrates a real need for change and gives you ideas on how to effect those changes. A quick read loaded with fact and not all that preachy. A good book to be sure.

Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement

Average customer rating:

Im the Chief now
Good read

Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement
Wayne W. Bennett , and Kären M. Hess
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Guide to Careers in Criminal Justice
Crime and Evidence in Action CD-ROM
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Internet Guide for Criminal Justice, 2nd

ASIN: 0495093416

Book Description

Eminently practical, straightforward, and applied, this text focuses on law enforcement managers and supervisors, their jobs, and the complicated interrelationships between members of the law enforcement team and the communities they share. It illustrates the best-known methods and practices of police leadership and management while also turning an eye to the future. It presents a comprehensive overview of the responsibilities of law enforcement leaders and covers everything from the newest principles of participative leadership and community policing to the exciting technological aids changing the face of law enforcement today.

Customer Reviews:

Im the Chief now.......2006-08-09

Great Book. Hard to read at times on mids, but now Im the CHief....Good Luck

Good read.......2006-02-26

I was tasked with reading this for a promotional test. It has lots of good infomation and makes for an easy read. Some of the chapters contain too much information making it difficult to retain but overall a good resource.

Policing and Special Units (Prentice Hall Policing and ... Series.)

Average customer rating:

Policing and Special Units (Prentice Hall Policing and ... Series.)
Peter W. Phillips
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0130482110

The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong

Average customer rating:

Very dry reading
Note the publisher of this book
Who should read this...
The Stephen Glass of econometricsisisis?
Eye-opening from the first page

The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong
John R. Lott
Manufacturer: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Arms Control | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0895261146

Book Description

Slicing through the emotional--but factually wrong--arguments of gun control advocates this book busts a number of myths, demonstrating with hard statistical data and riveting anecdotes.

Customer Reviews:

Very dry reading.......2007-09-01

If you can get past the numbers research then you'll benefit from this book. And, you'll never understand the evidence behind the truth about the benefits of gun possession versus the costs until you read it. The Bias Against Guns easily discredits those opposed to gun possession. Anti-gun folks don't tell the truth about the benefits of owning guns - John Lott does and proves it with advanced statistical analysis and research.

The proof that proves the benefits of gun possession is in this book.

Note the publisher of this book.......2007-08-26

Right wing, non-scholarly press. Then look at where Lott's critics publish--in scholarly journals and with academic presses.

Enough said.

Who should read this..........2007-04-01

Most of the news we see every day is favored toward showing the use of guns as bad. Whether this is because of a media plot to condition the public against guns, or because, in general, the people who work for the mainstream media are horrified by guns is not the point. What this book does is give us the other side of the debate, a side that needs to be heard.
Anyone who is caught by the day to day onslaught of the media bias against guns, but has an open mind and thinks they should have both sides of the story, should read this book. Anyone who instinctively knows that guns are the basis of all the freedoms we enjoy as Americans and would like a better understanding of that, should read this book.
Anyone else, it will be a waste of your money.

The Stephen Glass of econometricsisisis?.......2006-12-30

Fans of this 'scholarly work' (if computerized number crunching and anecdotal evidence can be called scholarly) by a 'much-published academician' (if that is meaningful to you) would no doubt be disappointed to learn Lott has based crucial evidence upon a survey he conducted himself and then 'unfortunately lost all trace of' the data; that he & his family have taken it upon themselves in the past to write stellar reviews for his books on Amazon.com; that Lott has found it necessary to defend his work by using pseudonyms and fake personas ('Mary Rosh')--but why, when the numbers speak for themselves??

Certainly not in order to profit from the audacious frenzy a claim like 'unregistered assault weapons reduce crime' would inevitably create...

Please, read 'How to Lie With Statistics' instead. Heck, read Wikipedia's article on John Lott, which cites the New England Journal of Medicine's statement:

[Lott] finds, for example, that both increasing the rate of unemployment and reducing income reduces the rate of violent crimes and that reducing the number of black women 40 years old or older (who are rarely either perpetrators or victims of murder) substantially reduces murder rates. Indeed, according to Lott's results, getting rid of older black women will lead to a more dramatic reduction in homicide rates than increasing arrest rates or enacting shall-issue laws.'

Controversy is indeed delicious, and who can fault some guy for trying to drum up a little press--but clouding such a serious issue in which lives are at stake with fuzzy math is undoubtedly reprehensible.

You can either be persuaded about this author's ethos by a few dazzling blurbs by 'Nobel Prize winners of Economics' (a solid science to be sure), or by his own behavior in response to scepticism. As Jon Weiner's Op-Ed in the LA Times states concerning the Lott v. Levitt lawsuit:

Lott is not suing those who have said some of his pro-gun research was "invented," "faked" or "cooked." The lawsuit turns on the definition of "replicate," from the "Freakonomics" sentence about how other scholars have tried and failed to "replicate his results." Lott maintains "replicate" means "analyze the identical data in the way Lott did." Because nobody tried to do that, he argues, "Freakonomics" is wrong. Most people, however, understand "replicate" to mean something like "confirm." Lott's reputation has indeed been "seriously damaged" by critics, but only because they have described many apparent holes in his dubious research and misleading citations. Blocking the sale of a book based on a literal interpretation of a single word [is] outrageous.'

Eye-opening from the first page.......2006-11-04

John R. Lott is a modern-day genius. His writing should earn him both the Nobel Prize for Peace AND the one for literature.

It's about time someone gave us the real story on gun crimes instead of the liberal slant we get from all the liberal news outlets. Obviously the previous reviewer who was in the military and speaks in favor of background checks has been misguided his own experience and these liberal media outlets.

Waiting periods make no sense at all, and I don't know who this Ronald Reagan guy is, but he sounds like a garden-variety lilly-livered liberal to me. Think about it. If you try to buy a handgun and you are forced to wait a week, there could be, by Mr. Lott's statistics, hundreds of crimes that you could have stopped by brandishing your piece. But those crimes happen, because you're stuck waiting because some liberal panzy named Reagan needed a background check law.

It's obvious, even to the most gun-scared leftist out there, everyone, even those who have not developed their full motor skills, should own a gun. Otherwise, how can you protect yourself!? It's NUMBERS people. If everyone has a gun, no one will get shot. Since gun owners are all expert marksmen, none of them would ever try to shoot a criminal and miss, thereby shooting an innocent bystander. After all, it's really easy to hit a moving target with a handgun. Heck, even you're a bad shot and you run out of bullets, you can easily peg your assailant on the head with the butt of your Magnum. If an innocent person gets shot, the statistics pale in comparison to how many would get shot it all of them didn't have guns.

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